Steve Desmond Brookstein (born 10 November 1968) is a British singer, probably best known as the first winner of the X Factor in December 2004, December 11, 2004, with two-thirds of the telephone votes.

On 8 January 2005 his cover of Against All Odds reached number one in the UK singles chart, staying there for one week. His first album Heart & Soul debuted at the top of the UK album chart on 16 May 2005.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Musical career 1.2 X-Factor 1.3 Since X-Factor 1.3.1 Other TV appearances 2 Discography 2.1 Albums 2.2 Singles 3 References 4 External links

Biography

Musical career

In 1996, Brookstein had previously appeared on LWT's The Big Big Talent Show, compered by Jonathan Ross, where he came second. He also sang in a northern soul group called 'The Four Vandals'.

X-Factor

Steve Brookstein is the first ever winner of ITV's X Factor. He won with over 5.5 million votes and was mentored by Simon Cowell. Despite the fact that Steve was disliked by Sharon Osbourne who dedicated 4 pages of her autobiography to him, who said that he was "an average singer", Brookstein was declared the winner of the first series during the 11 December 2004 final after receiving over two-thirds of the 9 million public votes.

Since X-Factor

Steve Brookstein's debut album was released May 9th 2005, five months after his single went to number one. It was not supported by a single or video but still went to number 1 in the UK album charts. 12 weeks later Steve Brookstein was dropped. Steve maintains that he was dropped because he would not agree to another album of covers, but admits they probably didn't want him anyway. . Brookstein parted company with his record label just eight months after winning the competition. In November 2005, Steve played a gig at The Bedford, a well respected music venue but according to a gossip columns Steve was back singing in pubs.

Brookstein's self-released the single "Fighting Butterflies" on 2nd October 2006, followed by his album of mainly original songs "40,000 things" on 9th October 2006. Both the single, and the album failed to make the official UK Charts.

On October 16, 2006, the Daily Mail newspaper reported that just 120 people attended Brookstein's gig at the 930 capacity Worthing Assembly Hall. However, over half the remaining dates, including the Glasgow Pavilion theatre, Epsom and Skegness, were largely sold out.

Brookstein appeared on the P&O Portsmouth to Bilbao ferry in June 2007 as a cabaret act, together with Chico Slimani and Journey South.

Other TV appearances

Steve Brookstein appeared on CD:UK, Top of The Pops, The Paul O'Grady Show, GMTV, This Morning, The Frank Skinner Show and has always performed live. He also appeared on The Match, where he was joined by Big Brother 6 winner Anthony Hutton and Philip Olivier from Brookside, ex cricketer Phil Tufnell, and Patrick McGuinness ("Paddy" from 'Pheonix Nights'). He survived a few matches but was eventually put on the bench with two other celebrities and voted off. Steve has also appeared on 'The Wright Stuff' and 'Loose Women'.

Discography

Albums

• (2005) Heart and Soul #1
• (2006) 40,000 Things #165

Singles

• (2004) "Against All Odds" #1
• (2006) "Fighting Butterflies" #193

References

External links

• New Steve Brookstein Official Website

Preceded by Michelle McManus as Pop Idol Winner

X Factor Winner Series 1 (2004)

Succeeded by Shayne Ward

v • d • e The X Factor in the United Kingdom
Series	1 · 2 · 3 · 4
Hosts	Dermot O'Leary · Fearne Cotton · Kate Thornton · Ben Shephard
Judges	Simon Cowell · Sharon Osbourne · Louis Walsh · Dannii Minogue
Winners	Steve Brookstein · Shayne Ward · Leona Lewis
Runners-Up	G4 · Andy Abraham · Ray Quinn
Other alumni	Journey South · Chico Slimani · Ben Mills
Spin-offs	The Xtra Factor · The X Factor: Battle of the Stars